Little Rosa

Little Rosa was her name, and still I cry in vain

My world won't be the same since she's gone from me

I have gone to visit the grave of a friend of mine

And as I walked through the graveyard

I noticed this man kneeling down by the grave of a child

And in his hand he held a big red rose, and tears were streaming down his cheeks

So, I walked over and laid a hand on his shoulder, and started to talk to him

And during the course of our conversation, and in his broken English

This is the story just as he told it to me

He said to me, "Mister, I've walked down the street on today

And I passed about the big flower shop

I walked in, and I asked the man in the shop

I said boss, how much is for one red rose

And he looked at me with one bigger smile, and he says, it's one dollar please"

But in a buyin' buyer was well-dressed blonde lady walked in

And she says, "How much is for one red rose"

And he looked at her with one bigger smile, and he says, "It's ten cents"

Now, I said boss, how come do you to charge me a dollar for the rose

And charged the young lady only ten cents

When he says, look Mister, you tell me why you want the rose

And maybe I give it to you for not

Then I said, boss, I'm a hardworking man

Working a railroad, and gonna make too much money

And I got a little girl, and her name is Rosa

Rosa's just about this high boss

Every day when I'd come home from the work

A little Rosa come running to meet her papa

And she'd throw her little arms around my neck and say, "Papa, and I'd say Rosa"

But one day, boss, I've come home from the work I don't see Rosa

I looked down by the railroad track, and I see one big crowd

I'd go down, and I pushed the crowd this a way, and pushed the crowd that way

There boss at my feet lay my little Rosa, and that's why I want the rose boss

I wanna put it on little Rosa's grave

Then man he didn't say not, but he picked the biggest and the reddest rose

And he gave it to me

And I said, "Thank you boss, thank you very much"

And though she's gone, you see, she's still the world to me

To me, she'll always be that little girl of mine